Information recording and/or reproducing apparatus and information recording and/or reproducing method

Abstract: In an information recording/reproducing apparatus, a recording/reproducing head is moved across tracks on a recording medium by a linear motor which is controlled to effect a seek operation of the head to a target track. A CPU for controlling the apparatus judges the seek direction of the head and whether the seek distance of the head is equal to or greater than a predetermined distance, in conformity with a recording or reproduction command from a host controller on the basis of a logical address designated by the host controller and a logical address at which the head is positioned. When the seek distance is equal to or greater than the predetermined distance, the linear motor is activated in the seek direction. Then, the logical address designated by the host controller is converted into a physical address and a control is effected such that the head reaches the target track.

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention This invention relates to an information recording-reproducing apparatus for recording and reproducing information on a recording medium such as a magnetic disc or a magneto-optical disc. Related Background Art Generally, in an information recording-reproducing apparatus such as a magnetic disc apparatus or an optical disc apparatus, when an information recording or reproduction command is received from an external controller, a process of analyzing the command is carried out and thereafter, a process for conversion from a logical address into a physical address is carried out. This conversion process includes a process for converting an address substituting the defective sector of a recording medium, and a process for converting a logical address into a physical address when the recording medium is divided into a plurality of zones and sectors constituting tracks differ from one another. When a track address for reading/writing information is thus found, seek control for moving a recording-reproducing head to a desired track is effected. To make the recording-reproducing head seek to a desired position, it is necessary to control the velocity of the head efficiently and move the head rapidly and accurately. Generally, as a velocity control system for such a recording-reproducing head, there is adopted a control system of determining a predetermined movement schedule (velocity profile), detecting the velocity of the head in the course of seek and applying feedback so as to be along the movement schedule. Figures 1A and 1B of the accompanying drawings show a popular control system, and in Figure 1A, V ref is a reference velocity representative of the movement schedule velocity, and V n is a velocity detected in the course of seek. Also, here is shown in Figures 1A and 1B the relation between the velocity profile and the applied current to a carriage driving rough actuator (linear motor) for moving the head. The reference velocity V ref is a velocity calculated in conformity with the remaining distance to a target, and is found from the following equation: V ref = [2·α(S-λ/2·N)] 1/2 , where S is the movement distance to the target, λ is the track pitch, α is the deceleration acceleration, and N is the zero cross count value from which the movement distance can be known. To control the velocity of the head, a command value to the linear motor is calculated from the target velocity V ref and then the current velocity V n at each predetermined cycle, whereby feedback is applied so that the velocity of the head may follow the target velocity. The command value A ct to the linear motor is calculated from the following equation, where K is the feedback gain. A ct = K(V ref -V n ) Thus, as shown in Figure 1B, the linear motor is supplied with an acceleration current at first and the velocity of the head is accelerated, and when the target velocity is reached, the current of the linear motor turns to a deceleration current, whereafter the head decelerates following the target velocity. When the head arrives at the target position, the velocity becomes 0 and thus, the seek operation is terminated. When the velocity of the recording-reproducing head is to be detected, the detecting system is used properly in the high velocity region and the low velocity region of the velocity. Specifically, first in the high velocity region, there is used a track counting system for detecting the velocity from the number N of tracks the head has crossed within a predetermined sampling interval T s . The velocity by this track counting system is detected from the following equation: V n = (λ/2·N)/T s On the other hand, in the low velocity region, there is used an inter-track counting system for detecting the zero cross points of a tracking error signal and detecting the velocity from the time T d between the zero cross points. That is, the distance between the zero cross points is 1/2 of the track pitch λ and therefore, if the passage time of this 1/2 pitch is known, the velocity could be detected. The velocity V n at this time can be found from the following equation: V n = (λ/2)T d Such two velocity detecting systems are selected in conformity with a predetermined reference velocity, and are changed over in such a manner that when the velocity of the head is higher than the reference velocity value, the track counting system corresponding to the high velocity region is selected and when the velocity of the head becomes lower than the reference velocity value, the inter-track counting system corresponding to the low velocity region is selected. Figure 2 of the accompanying drawings shows the seek sequence from after the recording-reproducing head receives a command for the access to a desired position until it arrives at the desired position. When the head receives the command, address calculation such as converting the logical address into the physical address is effected, whereafter the linear motor is driven and seek control is effected. When the linear motor is driven, a delay time (rising time) T M is created by the coil and static friction or the like of the linear motor, and the seek operation is started after this delay time T M . Thus, in the prior art, when the access of the recording-reproducing head to the desired position is to be effected, a system overhead time like the time T S required for the address calculation and the delay time T M of the linear motor have been required besides the actual seek time, and this has been a factor which increases the whole access time. EP-A-0443042 discloses a method and apparatus for seek control of disk apparatus. The method disclosed in EP-A-0443042 enables a seek operation of moving a head from a first position on a recording medium to a second position in response to a first command from an external device to be stopped in response to a second command. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances. An embodiment of the present invention provides an information recording-reproducing apparatus in which address calculation is effected within the delay time of a linear motor, whereby the system overhead time can be shortened to thereby make rapid access possible. In one aspect, the present invention provides a head positioning apparatus effective to move a head operable to perform at least one of the functions of recording information on and reproducing information from a recording medium having a plurality of tracks on the medium, the apparatus comprising: means arranged to move the head transverse to the tracks of the recording medium; means for controlling the moving means to cause the head to move in a seek direction towards a position corresponding to a target track at successive calculated velocities dependent on the spacing of the head from the target track; means for calculating the physical address of the target track; determining means for determining the seek direction in which to move the head towards the target track and whether or not the seek distance is equal to or greater than a predetermined distance; means for activating the moving means to move the head in the seek direction when the determining means determines that the seek distance is equal to or greater than the predetermined distance; the apparatus being characterised in that: said determining means is arranged to determine the seek direction and seek distance on the basis of a logical address in conformity with a recording or reproducing command from a host controller and a logical address corresponding to the current position of the head; and by including: means for converting the logical address designated by the host controller into a physical address of the target track during the time period after the moving means has been activated and before the moving means reaches an initial calculated velocity dependent on the spacing of the head from the target track. In a second aspect, the present invention provides a method of moving a head operable to perform at least one of the functions of recording information on and reproducing information from a recording medium having a plurality of tracks in a direction transverse to the tracks towards the target track, the method comprising the steps of: calculating the physical address of the target track; determining the seek direction in which to move head and whether or not the seek distance is equal to or greater than a predetermined distance; activating a moving means effective to move the head in the seek direction when it is determined in the determining step that the seek distance is equal to or greater than the predetermined distance; and controlling the moving means so that the head moves in the seek direction towards a position corresponding to the target track at successive calculated velocities dependent on the spacing of the head from the target track; the method being characterised by: the seek direction and seek distance being determined in the determining step on the basis of a logical address designated in a recording or reproducing command and the logical address corresponding to the current position of the head; and the step of converting the designated logical address into a physical address during the time period after effecting said activating step and before the moving means reaches an initial calculated velocity dependent on the spacing of the head from the target track. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figures 1A and 1B are graphs for illustrating the velocity controlling operation of a recording-reproducing head according to the prior art. Figure 2 shows the seek sequence during the access of the recording-reproducing head according to the prior art. Figure 3 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the information recording-reproducing apparatus of the present invention. Figure 4 shows the access sequence of the embodiment of Figure 3. Figure 5 is a flow chart showing the controlling operation during the seek operation of the embodiment of Figure 3. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT An embodiment of the present invention will hereinafter be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Figure 3 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the information recording-reproducing apparatus of the present invention. Herein, description will be made with an optical disc apparatus taken as an example of the information recording-reproducing apparatus. In Figure 3, reference numeral 1 designates an optical disc apparatus for effecting the recording and reproduction of information on an information recording medium. The optical disc apparatus 1 is connected as an external memory apparatus to a host computer 2. The host computer 2 issues various commands to the optical disc apparatus 1, in which recording and reproduction are executed on the basis of the commands. The construction of the optical disc apparatus 1 is as follows. Reference numeral 3 denotes an optical disc which is an information recording medium and is rotated at a constant velocity by the driving of a drive system, not shown. Reference numeral 4 designates an optical system for optically recording information on the optical disc 3 or reproducing the recorded information on the optical disc 3. The optical system 4 is comprised of various optical elements such as a semiconductor laser which is a light source for recording and reproduction, an objective lens for converging a laser beam from the semiconductor laser into a minute light spot and applying it onto the optical disc 3, and a sensor for detecting the reflected light from the optical disc 3. Reference numeral 5 denotes a tracking actuator for moving the objective lens in the optical system 4 radially of the optical disc 3, and reference numeral 6 designates a focusing actuator for moving the objective lens in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the optical disc 3. These two actuators 5 and 6 and the optical system 4 are unitized as an optical head and designed to be movable radially of the optical disc 3. Reference numeral 7 denotes a linear motor for moving the optical head radially of the optical disc 3 and making it seek to a desired position, and reference numeral 8 designates a driver for driving the linear motor 7. Reference numeral 9 denotes an error detector for detecting a tracking error signal and a focusing error signal on the basis of the output of the sensor in the optical system 4. The error signals obtained in the error detector 9 are sent to a CPU 10, by which the tracking actuator 5 and the focus actuator 6 are controlled on the basis of the error signals to thereby effect tracking control and focusing control. The CPU 10 is a digital control circuit for controlling the entire apparatus, and executes, besides the aforementioned tracking control and focusing control, the analysis of the commands sent from the host computer 2, address calculation, seek control, the control of information recording, the control of information reproduction, etc. Reference numeral 11 designates an A/D and D/A conversion unit for converting command values designated by the CPU 10 into analog signals and outputting them to the tracking actuator 5, the focusing actuator 6 and the driver 8, or converting the error signals detected by the error detector 9 into digital signals and outputting them to the CPU 10. Reference numeral 12 denotes a host interface controller provided between the host computer 2 and the CPU 10. The operation of the present embodiment will now be described with reference to Figures 4 and 5. Figure 4 shows the access sequence when the optical head is accessed to a desired position, and Figure 5 is a flow chart showing the controlling operation of the CPU 10 during the access. When information is to be recorded (or reproduced), a recording command is issued from the host computer 2 which is a host controller to the optical disc apparatus 1. This command is received by the CPU 10 through the host interface controller 12 (S1). The command is analyzed in the CPU 10, and if as a result of the analysis, it is judged that a seek operation is necessary, first-order address calculation is effected (S2). The first-order address calculation is effected in the following manner. First, the logical address of the optical disc 3 in which the optical head is now positioned is compared with a desired logical address designated by the host computer 2, and whether the seek direction is the inner periphery side or the outer periphery side is discriminated. Also, as a result of the comparison between the logical addresses, whether the difference therebetween is greater than a predetermined value is examined, whereby whether the seek is coarse seek is judged (S3). If the difference between the logical addresses is greater than the predetermined value, the coarse seek in which the linear motor 7 is driven to move the optical head is selected, and if the difference between the logical addresses is smaller than the predetermined value, multijump in which a beam of light is made to jump by the minute movement of the objective lens by the tracking actuator 5 is selected. That is, if the desired address is at a position far from the current position, it is judged that the seek operation by the linear motor 7 is necessary, and if the desired address is at a position whereat the number of tracks to the desired position is approximate to e.g. several tens to several hundreds, it is judged that the seek operation by the linear motor 7 is unnecessary and the jump by the tracking actuator 5 will suffice. Thus, the seek direction and the seek mode are judged on the basis of the result of the first-order address calculation (S3), and if it is judged that the seek mode is the coarse seek by the linear motor 7, the CPU 10 activates the linear motor 7 (S4) and also, track count is started and seek control is started (S5). When seek control is started, the CPU 10 executes second-order address calculation for converting the original logical address designated by the host computer 2 into a physical address (S6), and sets a target address (target track) by the result thereof (S7). When the target address is determined, the CPU 10 starts the velocity control of the optical head as previously described. The sequence after a command is received is shown in Figure 4, and when the command is received, first-order address calculation is first effected and from the result thereof, the seek mode is selected, and when the seek mode is judged to be the coarse seek by the linear motor, the linear motor (LM) is activated. Second-order address is then calculated, and when the target address is determined velocity control is started. The seek velocity controlling operation has been previously described in detail and therefore will be described briefly here. The track count value of a counter, not shown, is first input to the CPU 10 (S8). When the beam of light crosses the information tracks, one period of the tracking error signal corresponds to one track and therefore, the number of tracks the beam of light has crossed can be known by counting the tracking error signal. The CPU 10 then calculates a reference velocity Vref on the basis of the track count value, and also calculates the current velocity Vn by the aforedescribed track counting system or the inter-track counting system (S9). The reference velocity is calculated from the aforementioned equation (1), and the current velocity is calculated from equation (3) or (4). The CPU 10 calculates the control amount of the linear motor 7 on the basis of the target velocity and current velocity thus obtained (S10), and outputs it to the driver 8 (S11). Thus, the linear motor 7 is driven with a designated control amount, and feedback is applied thereto so that the linear motor may follow the target velocity. The control amount is calculated from the aforementioned equation (2). The series of processes of steps S8-S11 in the above-described velocity control are carried out in each predetermined period and as a result, as shown in Figure 4, the optical head seeks in accordance with a predetermined velocity profile. That is, at first, the optical head is accelerated toward the target velocity, and when it reaches the target velocity, it is decelerated following the target velocity. When the optical head arrives at a desired track, the beam of light is finally drawn onto the desired track and a series of data transferred from the host computer 2 are recorded. On the other hand, if at S3, the seek mode is judged to be multijump, the CPU 10 effects second-order address calculation similar to that of S6 (S12), and starts the control of the multijump toward the desired address obtained. That is, the jump operation of the beam of light by the tracking actuator 5 is performed and the beam of light is drawn onto the desired track. When the beam of light is thus drawn onto the desired track, a series of data transferred from the host computer 2 are likewise recorded. Of course, when a reproduction command is received from the host computer 2, the information of the desired track is reproduced and the reproduced data are transferred to the host computer 2 by the control of the CPU 10. As described above, in the present embodiment, when a recording or reproduction command is received, the seek direction and whether the seek distance is equal to or greater than a predetermined distance are judged at first and whether the seek mode is the seek by the linear motor or the seek by multijump is determined, and if the seek mode is the seek by the linear motor, the linear motor is activated, whereafter the logical address designated by the host computer is converted into a physical address and a desired track is found, whereby address calculation can be effected within the delay time (rising time) of the linear motor and the access time can be correspondingly shortened. That is, when as shown in Figure 4, the time from after the command is received until the first-order address calculation for judging the seek direction and the seek mode is T S1 and the calculation time of second-order address during which the logical address is converted into a physical address and a desired track is calculated in T S2 and the delay time of the linear motor T M , first-order and second-order address calculations have heretofore been effected before the activation of the linear motor, while in the present embodiment, second-order address calculation is effected within the delay time of the linear motor and therefore, it becomes possible to shorten the access time by an amount substantially corresponding to the second-order address calculation time T S2 . The term "logical address" used herein refers to an address logically indicative of the arrangement of data, and the term "physical address" refers to a physical address on the medium. These are well-known terms. The present invention is not restricted to the above-described embodiment, but of course, various constructions are possible without departing from the gist of the invention. For example, in the embodiment, description has been made with an optical disc apparatus taken as an example of the information recording-reproducing apparatus, whereas the present invention is not restricted thereto, but is also applicable to a magnetic disc apparatus and the like. As described above, the present invention has the effect that address calculation for converting the logical address into the physical address is effected within the rising time during the activation of the moving means, whereby the system overhead time can be shortened by an amount corresponding to the address calculation and the access time of the apparatus can be speeded up.

Claims: A head positioning apparatus effective to move a head operable to perform at least one of the functions of recording information on and reproducing information from a recording medium (3) having a plurality of tracks on the medium, the apparatus comprising: means (7, 8) arranged to move the head (4) transverse to the tracks of the recording medium (3); means (10) for controlling the moving means (7, 8) to cause the head (4) to move in a seek direction towards a position corresponding to a target track at successive calculated velocities dependent on the spacing of the head from the target track; means (10) for calculating the physical address of the target track; determining means (10) for determining the seek direction in which to move the head (4) towards the target track and whether or not the seek distance is equal to or greater than a predetermined distance; means (10) for activating the moving means (7, 8) to move the head (4) in the seek direction when the determining means determines that the seek distance is equal to or greater than the predetermined distance; the apparatus being characterised in that: said determining means (10) is arranged to determine the seek direction and seek distance on the basis of a logical address in conformity with a recording or reproducing command from a host controller (2) and a logical address corresponding to the current position of the head (4); and by including: means (10) for converting the logical address designated by the host controller (2) into a physical address of the target track during the time period after the moving means (7, 8) has been activated and before the moving means (7, 8) reaches an initial calculated velocity dependent on the spacing of the head (4) from the target track. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the head (4) is an optical head comprising a semiconductor laser, an objective lens for directing a light beam from the laser to the recording medium (3) and a tracking actuator (5) for moving the objective lens so as to move the light beam relative to the medium in the direction transverse to the tracks. An apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the determining means (10) is arranged so that if the seek distance is less than the predetermined distance, the tracking actuator (5) is activated to move the objective lens to move the light beam towards the target track on the recording medium (3). An apparatus according to any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the moving means comprises a linear motor (7) for moving the head (4) transversely to the tracks of the recording medium (3) and a driver (8) for driving the linear motor (7). An apparatus according to any of claims 1 to 4, wherein the control means, the determining means, the activating means and the converting means are constituted by a CPU (10). An apparatus including means for performing at least one of the functions of recording information on and reproducing information from a recording means, including a head positioning apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims. A method of moving a head (4) operable to perform at least one of the functions of recording information on and reproducing information from a recording medium (3) having a plurality of tracks in a direction transverse to the tracks towards the target track, the method comprising the steps of: calculating the physical address of the target track; determining the seek direction in which to move the head (4) and whether or not the seek distance is equal to or greater than a predetermined distance; activating a moving means (7, 8) effective to move the head (4) in the seek direction when it is determined in the determining step that the seek distance is equal to or greater than the predetermined distance; and controlling the moving means (7, 8) so that the head (4) moves in the seek direction towards a position corresponding to the target track at successive calculated velocities dependent on the spacing of the head from the target track; the method being characterised by: the seek direction and seek distance being determined in the determining step on the basis of a logical address designated in a recording or reproducing command and the logical address corresponding to the current position of the head (4); and the step of converting the designated logical address into a physical address during the time period after effecting said activating step and before the moving means (7, 8) reaches an initial calculated velocity dependent on the spacing of the head (4) from the target track. A method according to claim 7, wherein the head (4) comprises an optical head including a semiconductor laser, an objective lens for directing a light beam from the laser on to the recording medium (3), a sensor for detecting the reflected light from the recording medium and a tracking actuator (5) for moving the objective lens so as to move the light beam in a direction transverse to the tracks. A method according to claim 8, wherein if it is determined in said determining step that the seek distance is less than the predetermined distance, the tracking actuator (5) moves the objective lens to move the light beam towards the position of the target track. A method according to any one of claims 7 to 9, wherein the moving means comprises a linear motor (7) for moving the head (4) in a direction transverse to the tracks of the recording medium (3) and a driver (8) for driving the linear motor (7). A method of performing at least one of the functions of recording information on and reproducing information from a target track on a recording medium including the method of moving a head towards a target track according to any one of claims 7 to 10 and at least one of the further steps of recording information on and reproducing information from the target track.

Inventors: OGINO TSUKASA, OGINO, TSUKASA, OGINO, TSUKASA, C/O CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
Applicants: CANON KK, CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
Application year: 1994
Main classification: G11B21
IPC codes: G11B21, G11B7